Of One Blood: Abolitionism and the Origins of Racial Equality

In his final book, Paul Goodman upsets commonly held beliefs about the racial politics of antebellum America. Far from being a "white" republic at its inception, the United States only began to deny African Americans the right to vote after they'd exercised it in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Even those opposed to slavery initially believed that, because racism was so thoroughly ingrained in American society, the only reasonable solution was "colonization," the repatriation of the freed slaves to Africa. But, as Goodman shows, most black American leaders rejected this proposal and were gradually able, primarily through appeal to Christian brotherhood, to convince white abolitionists that genuine racial equality was the ultimate answer to the slavery problem.

Goodman is particularly strong at discussing the secular contributions of working-class Americans and women to the abolitionist movement, which dovetailed with other progressivist agendas. It was in abolitionism, for example, that many protofeminists gained the experience in civic activism that would later benefit their own cause. Women, he writes, "had to contend with a form of discrimination that their male counterparts, however supportive they were, did not. And from the experience of contending with that discrimination ... they tended to find their way to an overarching vision of American society, a vision premised on equal rights for all, regardless of class, color, and gender." Although somewhat dry in tone, Of One Blood is rich in historical insight, and it articulates a vision of democratic equality that still resonates in the modern age. --Ron Hogan